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No, he wasn't, and carefully introduced himself by his new
name and recent medical discharge, he was given a form to fill
out and told to arrange for an audition with a middle-aged
insurance salesman, one of the most talented comedians on
anyone's stage, Joe Bellan.

Emmett rehearsed a monologue from an eighteenth-century
Goldoni play for two days and returned to audition at the troupe.
His performance was strong but his style was too tight for the
broad, open manner of acting demanded by commedia dell'arte. He
was told he needed to work hard if he wanted to develop his
skills, and was invited to learn what he could in a mime class
conducted for members of the troupe early every afternoon by
Davis.

Now, mime isn't the pantomime of Marcel Marceau. Although it
incorporates the same physical movements as pantomime, it is
neither silent nor restricted from using props to dramatize a
dialogue. On the contrary, it uses everything from loud
buffoonery to slapstick travesty to perform dramas in which
scenes imitated from life are exaggerated and broadened to make
obvious what is usually subtle. Ronnie Davis had studied with
Etienne Decroux in Paris during his early twenties and Emmett
could only compare his mimic action to that of Jean-Louis
Barrault whom he saw perform the role of Battiste in the film
version of the nineteenth-century play, Children of Paradise. He
was good, very good.

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The season began and Emmett played small,
baker-candlestickmaker roles on the weekends, while continuing to
develop as a mime in workouts during the week. The plays were
performed outdoors on a portable stage the troupe would set up on
the grass of the parks around the city. The performances were
free with only a hat being passed around afterward. There were no
government subsidies or foundation grants but every moment--from
the preshow, warm-up songs like "Avanti Popolo" to the
tits-'n-ass-costumed deliveries of the actresses--was
professional. The performers were paid five dollars for each show
when the money was available, which was seldom, after the
resignation of the troupe's business manager. His name was Bill
Graham and he left the company to follow up an idea he got at a
benefit party thrown for the Mime Troupe. He leased a hall for
dancing, hired the same groups who had played at the party, and
charged people admission to get in. It was simple and an
immediate hit. Within weeks the Jewish war hero had a booming
successful operation going at the Fillmore auditorium and the
purists all over the Bay Area felt they were being burned by his
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